Kamirosregion.
The Kamirosregion is the name for the 7 villages around the Kamiros.
They are:
Kalavarda.
If you blink you miss this tiny village on the west coast. It has a petrol
station and a turnoff to the village of Salakos, reached by a tarred
road going up into the mountains. A drive down to the beach brings you to
a tiny harbour and a sandy beach with showers and places to eat and
drink.
We also lives here in hotel Vouras.
Fanes.
The name means light or lamp so named because a light from here warned the
people over the Halki of attack by Venetian pirates. There`s a sandy
beach, showers, tavernas, wind surfing, a tiny harbour and the smallest
playground in the world.
It is also home to Camelot, the quite extraordinary and ambitious
brainchild of a local hotelier. A right turn just after a disused water-trough
on the road down to the beach brings you to a medieval jousting hall complete
with stables, shields and seating for quite a few hundred people. The place
was last opening in 1991 with horsemen brought over from Spain to
perform the jousting. Such a courageous idea deserved to succeed but the
windswept appearance tells another story.
Soroni.
This is an agricultural village, the area producing mainly cereals. In fact
Soroni (meaning oak) was the first village on the island to buy a
mechanical thresher. The traditional cafes, houses and locals are still largely
unaffected by tourism. A drive down to the beach at Soroni offers
good swimming, shade, showers and a couple of tavernas.
Just out of Soroni is a sign for the little church of St
Soula. There`s a very jolly festival every year on 29/30 July with
donkey races, music and dancing. Local folklore tells us that if you suffer
from warts you collect send from outside the church, mix it with candle wax
and rub it on the warts and they will almost certainly disappear.
Dimilia.
This tiny village next to Eleousa in the mountains takes its name
from two mills at either end of the village. Above one of these mills are
bits of yet another castle where villagers would hide from the pirates.
The village has a little church of the Forty Martyrs and a charming
square places to eat and drink.
Apollona.
This village has a dear little museum and library. Both are set in
a flower-filled garden containing tiny section of the wall of a medieval
castle. The stones from this castle were used to build the church and the
schoolhouse in the village. The museum has old farm machinery and a giant
stone olive press with a model horse pulling it around. There`s also a huge
handcarved wooden press for candle wax, the usual marble relics from preCristian
times and a charming traditional house.
The nearby Church of the Cross has a piece of the real cross which is displayed
on feast days. A sign just past a petrol station points to the graveyard
and the football stadium, a very smart affair with sparkling white walls
and brightly coloured bougainvillea.
Eleousa.
This fascinating village was built by Italians when they took the Dodecanese
island in 1912. This area was an army base with some 30,000 Italians soldiers.
This village square has the crumbling ruins of a shopping arcade with
hand-painted wall decorations and a gently crumbling grandeur. The only resident
now is Sofia who lives in a little flower-filled room and takes care of the
post box. The prison and police headquarters opposite the arcade is now a
school. The church, originally Roman Catholic, is now the Greek Orthodox
church of St Haralambos. The building straight across the square from
the church was a sanatorium for patients with lung diseases and now an army
base.
If you leave this square and follow signs for Profetis Ilias you come
to a beautiful Italian-built reservoir used to store water brought down from
the mountains.
Salakos.
The village with about 600 inhabitants is nicely situated by the Profitis
Ilias. Nearby is a underground spring witch gives water to more than
40 % of the inhabitants.
During christmas time, the people of the village arrange a big party by a
cave outside the village, inside the cave they have a crib with the Jesuschild
inside and Josef with his wife Maria standing around.
In the centre of Salakos they make the god dam best stifado
with tsatziki that we've ever tasted.
Information taken from
Rhodes A Holliday
Handbook by
Judi Miles
except Salakos.
This document was created by Hasse Lundholm
and translated by Dan the man
Neimark.